Shadows On The Pitch - the long summer of 2017-18

Shadows On The Pitch - the long summer of 2017-18

This collection of Gideon Haighs previously published articles distils from his daily reporting the essence of the 2017-18 cricket season, from victories and celebrations to the controversy that captured the worlds attention. The Australian mens cricket team arrived in Bangladesh in mid-August 2017 and departed South Africa in mid-April 2018, having deployed thirty-seven players in eleven Tests, ten one-day internationals and seven T20 internationals. They came from behind to draw a series in Asia; they regained the Ashes, rising from fi fth to third in the worlds Test championship; they slipped to fourth on the ODI table and rose to second in the T20I rankings. But the souring of the achievements began around 3pm on 24 March 2018 at Newlands, when umpires summoned Cameron Bancroft to discuss attempts to alter the condition of the 42-over-old ball to which they had been alerted.Ten weeks earlier, Bancroft had posed on a stage at the Sydney Cricket Ground celebrating victory over England; within two weeks, he and three of his fellow revellers, captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and coach Darren Lehmann, had become casualties of perhaps the angriest and suddenest sports controversies of the century.